This invention relates to treatment of textile material, and more particularly to a method for treating textile material and also to nonwoven fabric rolls for use in carrying out the method.
As is well known in the field of the invention, textile material such as woven cloth, nonwoven fabric, knitted fabric and other textile fabric, is often subjected sequentially or independently to one or more treatment stages such as for example dipping, washing, rinsing, neutralizing, and various other chemical treatments. Most of these treatments have conventionally been conducted by passing the material through treating liquid or water filled in a bath or reservoir. Regardless of a scale of treatment, a solution bath or bathes have been inevitably required for carrying out the conventional treating methods, even in such a particular case where a very simple or partial treatment is satisfactory. Accordingly, the conventional methods are disadvantageous from the viewpoint of energy-saving, rationalization of the treatment system and achivement of low bath ratio for saving treatment medium.
In the treatment of textile material, a dewatering process is accompanied everywhere. For instance a water-washing system, a bleaching system, a dyeing system and other chemical treatment systems for textile material all usually include as many as two to four dewatering equipments, and the textile material undergoes such dewatering many times. Further, in some particular cases, wiping rolls, doctor blades, and other extra equipments are employed in order to assist the dewatering.
It is, therefore, considered that enhancement of efficiency in dewatering or removal of treating liquid from textile material under treatment will greatly contribute to the above-discussed energy saving, rationalization of the treatment system and achievement of low bath ratio.
Under these technical circumstances and background, nonwoven fabric rolls including a number of liquid-absorbing nonwoven fabric disks pressed together into tight contact relation, have been proposed and are now widely used in place of the conventional rubber rolls.
However, such conventional nonwoven fabric rolls are only to utilize the water-absorbing property of the nonwoven fabric, which no longer works when entirely saturated with absorbed water or liquid. For recovering the water-absorbing property of the nonwoven fabric roll, an expensive extra equipment is inevitably required.
It is, therefore an object of the invention to substantially reduce the above-discussed disadvantages in the conventional treatment of textile material.
Another object of the invention is to provide an improved method for treating textile material, which is simple to carry out, efficient, economical, capable of saving energy and treatment medium, and applicable to variou systems and stages for treating textile material.
A further object of the invention is to provide an improved method for treating textile material, which permits partial treatment of textile material, rationalization of the treating system and process, and low bath ratio.
A further object of the invention is to provide an improved method for treating textile material, which is capable of efficient dewatering, which in turn permits reduction in operating time and heat energy required in a subsequent drying stage.
A further object of the invention is to provide an improved method for treating textile material, which permits easy control of flow rate of applied treatment medium or water whereby uniform quality of treated material is attained.
A further object of the invention is to provide an improved nonwoven fabric roll for use in carrying out the textile treating method according to the invention.
A further object of the invention is to provide an improved nonwoven fabric roll having internal fluid passageways which can be operatively connected to an external fluid supply system or apparatus or an external suction system or apparatus.
A further object of the invention is to provide an improved nonwoven fabric roll which is capable of letting the supplied treatment medium or water flow out of its circumferential periphery.
A yet further object of the invention is to provide an improved nonwoven fabric roll which is capable of sucking off the treatment medium or water applied to and contained in the textile material.
According to the present invention, there is provided a method for treating textile material, which comprises: forcibly supplying treating fluid into a fluid supply roll through internal fluid passageways formed therein and letting the supplied fluid flow out of the circumferential periphery of the supply roll, applying negative pressure to a suction roll through fluid passageways formed therein, passing a textile material between the opposed fluid supply and the suction rolls, and forcibly transferring the fluid on the supply roll into the suction roll through an interfacing portion of the textile material by sucking operation of the suction roll. Combination and arrangement of the fluid supply roll or rolls and the suction roll or rolls can be varied in many ways.
According to the present invention, there is also provided a nonwoven fabric roll for use in carrying out the aforesaid method for treating textile material, which comprises: a number of nonwoven fabric elements mounted on a cylindrical core in tight contact relation to one another, and fluid passageways formed internally of the roll so as to be operatively connected to an external pressure fluid source or an external negative pressure source. The fluid passageways can be provided in various forms.
Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the detailed description give hereinafter: it should be understood, however, that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become obvious to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.